1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of sleep timer operation and a timer, and more particularly to a method of sleep timer operation and a sleep timer used in audio/visual apparatuses such as a tape deck, CD (compact disk) player, tuner, and video recording/reproducing apparatus.
2. Prior Art
Some audio/visual apparatuses are provided with a so-called sleep timer which operates to automatically turn off the apparatus when a predetermined length of time has elapsed so that the apparatus is not left turned on after the user has fallen asleep.
The conventional sleep timers have a plurality of time settings of predetermined lengths, for example, 90, 60, and 30 minutes, each of which is selected in a cyclic manner such as 90, 60, 30, 90, . . . , each press of a sleep key. When a user wants to enjoy a music tape in bed till he falls asleep, this type of timer must be set to 60 minutes if the required time for reproducing the audio information in the tape is, for example, 45 minutes. In this case, the tape deck remains turned on for some time after the reproduction of the music tape has completed. Also, when the user wants to listen to the radio or watch television in bed till he falls asleep, the tuner noise continues to radiate from the speaker or the picture and sound continue if the broadcast is over before the timer times to zero.